Friday, December 21, 2018

Jon Meacham has written a truly wonderful biography of the 41st president, George Herbert Walker Bush. Drawing from nearly nine years of interviews with the President himself, interviews with friends and family, various memoirs, and Bush's own diary, this book is a biographical portrait of the man in full.

Meacham has a real knack for storytelling, knowing when to dive into an area and when to give a brief summary and move on. There's more in this book about Bush's time in China and as CIA Director than I've come across elsewhere. His vice presidency doesn't get much time, though. You're given Bush's philosophy of how a VP should act and that's about it. One interesting bit, though, is most of Reagan's second term is viewed through the lens of how it affects Bush's run in 1988. In all my reading about the 1980's, I've never seen this perspective.

Bush's one term as president was defined mostly by global events (the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, German unification, the Gulf War, etc.), and that takes up the bulk of the book's chapters on his presidency. There is talk about some of his domestic agenda and frequent quotes from Bush's diary confiding his worries about the economy, but it's a secondary subject.

Bush's compassion and capacity for friendship are legendary and come through in the book. He may not have been inspirational as Reagan or have the rock star charisma of Clinton, but he forged personal, long-lasting connections with many he encountered.

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

This one was a slog to finish. If you ever wondered how to make one of the most interesting and complex characters ever to be President boring, this is your textbook. Dallek misunderstands Nixon and paints him as entirely one-dimensional. The book itself is repetitive and filled with facts that don't add up to any kind of narrative.

Dallek's style also irritated me. He alternated between calling Kissinger "Kissinger" and "Henry" and jumped in often with editorial assertions that weren't backed up by evidence.

Monday, November 19, 2018

This sounds more like a summer tune, but this time of year a lot of people take off to use up any unused PTO they accrued during the year. So, as Eric Lindell recommends, take yourself a lazy day or two.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Lucy Chenier's son, Ben, is kidnapped while Cole is watching him. When the kidnappers call, it's not for ransom, but to punish Cole for alleged war crimes during his tour in Vietnam. It's a race against time to rescue Ben from harm while Lucy's ex, Richard, accuses Cole of bringing danger into his son's life.

I don't have much to say about this one except it's another solid Cole story from Robert Crais. It's well written, twisty, and with a tense shootout at the end.

Monday, October 22, 2018

Blues Traveler released their 13th studio album, Hurry Up & Hang Around, on October 12th. A couple months ago, the song of the week was its first single: "Accelerated Nation". It was a good indicator of the quality of this album. It is easily the best Blues Traveler record since 2005's Bastardos!. It is a return to form for a great band.

This week's song is the eighth track off the album - "More Than Truth".

Monday, September 10, 2018

This week's song comes from the enduring hard-bop classic album Cool Struttin' by Sonny Clark. The title track is probably the best known song, but "Royal Flush" is another good one with a familiar opening riff. Also featured on this album are Art Farmer (trumpet), Paul Chambers (bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums). Talk about an all-star lineup.

Monday, August 13, 2018

A year ago this week (August 16), I saw Kenny Wayne Shepherd for the second time at Morristown's Community Theater. Here is one of the songs from that night, a tune from his most recent album. And it's one of my favorites from that album.

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

The Korean War is often referred to as "The Forgotten War", but in many ways the War of 1812 is also forgotten. Sandwiched between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, most Americans' knowledge of the subject is relegated to the burning of the White House, Francis Scott Key and the Star-Spangled Banner, and, if you're really knowledgeable, something about Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans. To be sure, there aren't as many memorable battles in the War of 1812, but its consequences shaped the modern world in ways that very few realize.

In the years after the Revolutionary War, many in the British government held animosity toward the crown's former colonies. They refused to abide by the Treaty of Paris and left troops behind in many of their North American forts. The interdicted American ships, interfering with trade and engaging in a practice known as impressment. In this practice, officers of a British ship would board an American ship, single out members of her crew, identifying them as British subjects and forcing them to serve in the British Navy. President James Madison entreated the British government to put an end to this practice, but his words fell on deaf ears. With Napoleon wreaking havoc on the European continent, Madison saw an opening to declare war on June 18, 1812.

In early 1812, Napoleon looked invincible. His troops won so many battles so quickly, it appeared that world domination was within his grasp. Toward the end of the year, he set his sights on conquering Russia, which most military experts thought would be accomplished easily. Once Russia was under his control, almost everyone felt he would turn his attention to the tiny island nation of England. Madison thought if he harassed the British enough, they would be quick to settle on neutral trade and impressment so they could turn their full attention to a defense against Napoleon. The American Navy, though small, won some early victories against the vastly superior British Navy which, at the time, was the most powerful navy the world had ever seen. Madison ordered an invasion of Canada, which ended up being a series of blunders and half measures. But after Napoleon's retreat from Russia and eventual exile to Elba, the British government was able to turn its full attention to the American theater.

Flush with victory, Lord Liverpool, the Prime Minister, saw the moment as a perfect opportunity to pursue aggressive action against the United States. He upped the British blockade of American ports, sent word to slaves in the American South that any man who escaped from his master would be given his freedom after serving in His Majesty's Navy for the remainder of the war, fomented unrest in New England with the goal of having is secede from the Union, attempted to establish an Indian colony in the West, and planned an two-pronged invasion from Montreal and New Orleans that would crush the United States and re-establish English dominance over North America. It was during this time that a squadron of British soldiers landed in the Washington Tidal Basin and set fire to the White House and nearly every other public building in Washington D.C..

Though the British won some major victories and essentially destroyed the American capital, the American forces hung tough. The peace treaty negotiated by Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams didn't address neutral trade or impressment and essentially left everything the way it was before the war. But with the victories at sea and in New Orleans (technically fought after the peace treaty was signed), the British had newfound respect for their American cousins. The government ended impressment and the practice of harassing American trade and worked as partners with the other major English speaking nation on Earth.

For the American side, the Revolutionary War won the rights we all enjoy today, but the War of 1812 cemented them. Not entirely by resisting British imperialism, but in the ways President Madison acted. There were no sedition laws passed to punish his detractors. There was no aggrandizing more powers into the Executive branch. And there was a change in mindset of the American people that a standing army and navy, rather than being a danger to democracy, was an essential bulwark against those who wished to do us harm.

These are just some of the things I learned from Daughan's excellent book on the War of 1812. The subtitle of the book, The Navy's War, is misleading in that it is a book about the entire war. Daughan's focus is primarily on the navy, so I wonder if my perception of the war is skewed in that direction at all. The book is well-written and deeply researched. Sometimes I think Daughan spent too much time in describing how many of which types of guns a ship had or how many men were killed, injured, or wounded after a battle (his "butcher's bill" was rendered after every naval skirmish), but that didn't detract from the overall worth of the book.

The War of 1812 deserves to be studied and talked about more than it is and Daughan's book is an excellent place to start increasing your knowledge of the subject.

Monday, July 16, 2018

This week, Blues Traveler released the first song of their new album (coming this fall). I was disappointed in their last two albums, so I'm wary of this one. The song, "Accelerated Nation", is good, though. Sounds like some classic Blues Traveler.

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

July 4th is the birthday of our country and it's also the birthday of only one of its presidents: Calvin Coolidge (July 4, 1872 - January 5, 1933). Coolidge also had the great privilege of being President on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Though most people know him as not speaking much (his nickname was Silent Cal), there are many speeches of his that are supremely eloquent. One such speech is his July 4th, 1926 speech which can be found here.

I always liked this passage:

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

Saturday, June 30, 2018

In Jonah Goldberg's latest book, he argues that tribalism, populism, and nationalism are ruining American democracy. But these -isms aren't new inventions. Drawing on extensive research, these -isms are actually the way things have historically been. It has only been since around the year 1700 that we have seen an explosion in freedom, respect for others, and staggering economic growth. Goldberg offers some theories about why what he calls “The Miracle” happened, but he's more interested in showing how the Miracle created the modern world and how it's in danger of slipping away.

The political left and right define freedom in different ways. The right prefers negative liberty, which is defined as freedom from government interference. The left generally strives for positive liberty, that is the state must guarantee things like health care, employment, etc. As Goldberg himself points out, “What often gets left out of the debate is the fact that economic growth and technological innovation do more to provide positive liberty than any government could.” The Miracle of democratic capitalism has done more to advance the relative wealth of society than anything else in all of human history. Once we started believing that all men and women were created equal and that each of us has certain unalienable rights, the standard of living, life expectancy, and technology we have at our fingertips accelerated at an incredible rate. The idea of negative liberty taking root has been the greatest welfare program in all of human history. I don't think he should have made a purely economic argument, but I wish he had spent more time on it instead of tucking it away in an appendix.

Goldberg spends most of the book showing where we were pre- and post-Miracle, leading to the theme of gratitude. We are not grateful for what the past has given us and, as a result, are in danger of losing the spark that made the modern world as great as it is. I think his core argument can be summed up in this passage found on page 66:

Under the best of circumstances, every important endeavor requires work. Every person who has ever been married understands that marriage requires effort. Every athlete understands the importance of practice and training. Every general knows that troops lose their edge unless it is carefully maintained. The Miracle of liberal democratic capitalism is not self-sustaining. Turn your back on its maintenance and it will fall apart. Take it for granted and people will start reverting to their natural impulses of tribalism. The best will lack all conviction and the worst will be full of passionate intensity. Things will fall apart.

I fear that the left will ignore this book because of its all-consuming desire for identity and grievance politics. Some on the right will ignore it because people view Goldberg as anti-Trump. This is one thing that Goldberg is arguing against. We must not view politics as an us vs them sport where we celebrate our team's win and our enemy's loss. That is our tribal brain at work. My hope is that we're not already too far gone to realize the great gift we've been given and have debates over the best way to preserve it.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Human beings are the most musically advanced civilization in the universe. Even our crappiest earworm brings rapture to any alien species who listens to it. This is why aliens have been pirating our music since 1977. It turns out, however, that this piracy has racked up a giant royalty bill that would bankrupt the galaxy if the Earth ever tried to collect it. A group of aliens decides it would just be easier to destroy the earth. A second group of aliens enlists the help of a copyright attorney named Nick Carter to find a way out from under the crushing debt.

A lot of the press about Year Zero mentions it in the same breath as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm convinced that the only people who make that comparison are those who know HHG2G is funny sci-fi, but who have never actually read Guide. The concept of Year Zero is good fodder for a funny book, but the execution was lacking. Here are a few writerly tips about what went wrong with this book.

1) Weighted more heavily toward summary than scene. A scene is showing what happens when two people go on a date. Summary is having a character say "I went on a date last night and this happened". A vast majority of the book is told via summary. You're in the middle of a scene when a character we haven't seen in a while comes on the page and explains what they've been doing while they were away. Some of this is fine, but too often it drags the story to a halt. There were even times where the narrator tells another character what he was up to between chapters. Why not just show it?

2) Over-explaining things. Science fiction is tricky. You come up with an alien species or sweet piece of technology and you have to communicate to the reader enough information so they're not lost. However, you don't need characters sitting around and reading the whole wikipedia entry about the topic. Think of it this way: if a visitor from 1600 shows up at your front door, could you explain how planes fly? Or how the internal combustion engine powers your car? Most likely not. And does the information further the plot? Do you really need five pages to describe X if it doesn't move Nick from point A to point B in the story? If the answer is no, give the reader enough to go on and then move on.

3) Appropriate reactions. This is more of an advanced tip. Early on it's good. Hey aliens show up! Holy crap, what's going on? But at a critical juncture in the story, an ally Nick recruited to help him out vanishes into thin air when it shouldn't be possible. Nick and the other characters shrug, say he/she is probably OK, and continue. Don't be afraid to have your characters freak out if a freakout is called for.

There were other things that annoyed me, but those are more likely a matter of personal preference.

This probably makes is sound like I hated Year Zero, but I didn't. There were parts that worked and parts that didn't. I would have liked to have seen the story handled by a more talented writer, but the book served its purpose.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Harry Bosch is back and working two cases at once. In his capacity as a private investigator, he is hired by Whitney Vance, an aging billionaire, to find any possible heirs. It's a family saga worthy of Ross Macdonald with lots of twists and turns that I never saw coming. The second case has Harry uncovering a serial rapist while working as a reserve detective for the San Fernando Police Department. This is a straight police procedural and provides the opportunity for some gunplay. The PI case appeals more to my sensibilities, but both were good and riveting.

Monday, June 11, 2018

This is another one circling in my head. I like how the Traveling Wilburys is a complete band, but you can hear all the distinct parts. You've got George Harrison's verse that's fast and in a limited range next to Roy Orbison's soaring falsetto.

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

The Gatekeepers is a fascinating inside baseball account of the Presidential administrations going back to Richard Nixon. You learn a lot about the inner workings of the White House and how major policy things were done. With all the quotes from the principals and some background staffers, Chris Whipple must have spent hundreds of hours in interviews. In some places it's a bit surface and his political biases show through, but overall it's well written and engaging.

Monday, May 14, 2018

This week's song comes from Jimmie Vaughan's latest album - Live At C'Boy's. It's a trio album featuring Jimmie on guitar and vocals, Mike Flanigin on the Hammond B-3 organ, and the late Barry "Frosty" Smith on drums.

The temperance movement grew out of some very real concerns. During the 1800s, American consumption of alcohol grew faster than the population grew. Many Americans were literally drinking themselves to death and religious and other groups wanted to take steps to curb the use of alcohol. In this regard, Prohibition did its job. In the first few years of Prohibition, alcohol consumption dropped 70% and didn't reach pre-Prohibition levels until 1973 (and dropped again in the 1980's). But in every other aspect, Prohibition was a failure.

Rather than dwell on the aspects most of us know about (the open disdain for the rule of law, the rise of organized crime), I'd like to mention some of the other points author Daniel Okrent makes. The push for Prohibition and the 18th Amendment drastically changed politics in America. For the first time, many different groups worked together because they agreed on one issue: they were dry. Aside from the ultra religious, the other main group in support of Prohibition was women. But as they lacked the right to vote, their power to make change was severely limited. That's why many people banded together to promote women's suffrage. They reasoned that if women had the right to vote, Prohibition would soon follow.

Another reason Prohibition took a while to gain traction was the taxes collected on alcohol. From the early days of the republic (first instituted by Alexander Hamilton) to the Civil War to the Spanish-American War, the government would raise the liquor tax to pay for the war, ,then lower it when the war was over. If alcohol was made illegal, a great source of income would be removed. But after the 16th Amendment created the income tax, another domino fell.

You can conceivably trace women's suffrage, the income tax, single-issue voting, and rallying of minority groups toward a cause to the temperance movement. Okrent fairly presents these items and the issue of wet vs dry without taking sides. His narrative is politically balanced except for his unbridled disdain for Calvin Coolidge.

Overall, it is a great and interesting book on a turbulent time in American history

Monday, April 23, 2018

I've seen clips of Tommy Castro playing with other blues guitarists I like and I was not impressed. The other guys always seemed to blow him away. But I like what I've heard on XM's Bluesville channel. For example, this week's song, with it's smoking horns and tight groove bass line.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

When Mossad executes a daring plan to take out Iran's newest nuclear facility, the Iranian government spins up its propaganda machine and blames America. CIA Director Irene Kennedy attempts a back-channel negotiation with her Iranian counterpart, but is kidnapped shortly afterward. It's up to our hero, Mitch Rapp, to save her before time runs out.

I've been a fan of Vince Flynn for years, but don't read him as regularly as I used to. He knows how to craft exciting stories and Protect and Defend is no exception to the rule. You know what you're getting from a Mitch Rapp book and that's what you get from this one. It's a tight story that's well told. I really liked the opening gambit that destroyed Iran's nuclear facility.

Monday, April 16, 2018

This week's song is from bluesman Jimmie Vaughan. He has a new trio album out, but this song is from his 1998 album Out There. It's got a nice tight groove, some stellar guitar by Vaughan, and the distinctive sound of a Hammond B-3.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Mike Hodge is a WWI vet and a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Prohibition-era Chicago is a rough place with the war between the Irish, Capone's mob, and the Feds. Hodge's ingenious idea of getting the inside scoop is to hang around flower shops because people always send flowers to a wake. This is where he falls in love with the daughter of an Irish shopowner. Their love affair is cut short and Hodge spends a good chunk of the book piecing together why.

David Mamet is known for the rhythmic quality of the dialogue in his plays. It doesn't quite translate onto the written page where the sentences have numerous dependent clauses and start and stop many times. It could work if one character spoke like that or if there were moments when a character did, but almost all the characters do it all the time and the narration follows the same pattern. It causes the characters to sound unnatural and as if they're pontificating on life, the universe, and everything.

Mamet does craft some good sentences, though. There are multiple chapters whose first lines could easily serve as a great first line of a novel. For example, Chapter 4 starts with this line: "Jackie Weiss, Mike wrote, had died of a broken heart, it being broken by several slugs from a .45."

Ultimately, the early pacing problems and the florid language drag down what could have been an outstanding book.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Means of Ascent is the second book in Robert Caro's extensive biography of the 36th President of the United States. This volume picks up where the Path to Power left off and takes us through the 1948 Senate campaign that saw LBJ become the junior Senator from Texas.

As in the first book, Johnson's character is put under a spotlight. He remains abusive to his staff and wife. He's an outright lair. He spread falsehoods about his opponent Coke Stevenson in an effort to destroy his reputation. He lied about his wartime record, which amounted to flying an observer for 10 minutes on a single bombing mission over Japan.

Johnson pioneered many modern campaign techniques in his 1948 campaign. While his opponent traveled via car, LBJ traveled across Texas in a helicopter, allowing him personal contact with many more potential voters. He outspent his opponent nearly 10 to 1, shattering records for the most expensive Texas campaign ever. And he blanketed the state with radio broadcasts three times a day, fake newspapers with negative stories about his opponent, and used the modern technique of repetition to drive his points home and make people believe his lies. And this all that, he still had to resort to stealing the election by stuffing ballot boxes and modifying already filed returns.

Means of Ascent has the same strengths and weaknesses as Path. It is deeply researched. It also suffers from lots of repetition. The long biographical digressions remain. The first volume contained a complete biography of Sam Rayburn before he met Johnson and this one contains a full biography of former Texas governor Coke Stevenson. They're both interesting and could be books on their own, but I'm not sure if that much detail is necessary here.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

When Douglas Adams died in 2001, he left behind millions of books sold, millions of fans, and scattered bits of writing on Macintosh hard drives. The Salmon of Doubt culls together numerous essays he wrote, interviews, a couple short stories, and bits of an unfinished novel. The essays range from autobiographical to musings on technology and all contain his trademark whit. Adams himself mentions how much he was influenced by Monty Python and you can definitely see their shared sense of humor.

The most tantalizing bit of the book for Adams fans is the unfinished Dirk Gently novel, The Salmon of Doubt. Through the assembled chapters, we join Gently on an investigation where he doesn't know who hired him, so he decides to follow somebody at random because he figures he was hired to tail somebody. It's a great start to a story that this fan wishes Adams could have finished.

The Salmon of Doubt is probably only for hardcore Hitchhikers (is there another kind?). It's a fun visit with Adams and a reminder of how this world could sorely use his brand of mayhem.

Looking back, it's easy to lionize your heroes and to overlook their faults, but in many ways, WFB was truly a genius. His television show Firing Line wasn't a collection of pundits yelling soundbites at each other, but a one on one debate between Bill and someone of an opposing viewpoint. He actually let the left bring their best arguments and their best debaters onto his show and give them an audience they otherwise wouldn't have gotten. His motives weren't altruistic because he truly wanted his ideas to win, but he created a level playing field where serious ideas could be discussed seriously.

Brookhiser also correctly diagnoses the problems with the current conservative movement. Many conservative commentators have thrown aside their principles in order to support someone who "wins" and "fights". How, after three (or seven) more years of a Trump presidency, can we take them seriously again? Lord Acton's quote about power corrupting is typically interpreted as the person in power being corrupted by it. But the original intention was to describe the willingness of some to bend their beliefs to gain favor of one in power.

One of the great strengths of the conservative movement since its beginning is the willingness to challenge its own dogma. There have been numerous arguments between conservatives, neo-cons, paleo-cons, libertarians, Buckleyite conservitives, etc, that have clarified positions and made the intellectual underpinnings of the movement stronger. But the Trump era has polarized the Right in almost the way the right and left have been polarized in the Bush 43 and Obama eras. Trump supporters echo their icon and hurl epithets and demean those who dare to, not just criticize, but question anything he says.

What's mainly forgotten in the modern age is that politics is about persuasion. Buckley was not without his faults, but he understood this basic fact and put in the work to persuade people that his ideas were right. We could use more like him today.

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Great collection of the Notes & Asides feature from National Review. It's a reminder of the zest for life that Bill Buckley had and how, once upon a time, there could be humor and camaraderie between those of differing political ideologies.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

I don't remember when I first heard about Scott Wolven, but I remember getting hooked by his stories. A number of years ago, they just started popping up on all the crime fiction zines and each one was brilliant. Wolven didn't have his own blog or website and wasn't part of the crime fiction community like a lot of other writers, but he had an avid following due to the strength of his writing. Unfortunately, we haven't heard much from him in a while.

I finally tracked down a copy of Controlled Burn, his collection of short stories. Every story in this collection is great. He portrays characters at the fringes of society - convicts, ex-convicts, and people who work in cash only businesses because they're hiding from their pasts. His spare, muscular prose is engaging. And yet, like in stories like "Tigers", his language is poetic.

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Engaging book by one of hockey's legends. This book is part memoir and part hockey history. Dryden draws a number of character sketches of his teammates from the Cup winning teams of the 1970's (In Dryden's 8 years with Montreal, he won 6 Stanley Cups). He also waxes about his reasons for retirement. One particular passage stood out to me. Dryden says in your early 20's, you work and fight and scratch to get better at what you do. Once you hit your 30's, you work and fight and scratch to not lose what you once had. While the ages for professional athletes are earlier, it's a profound insight for the rest of us.

Towards the end of book, Dryden talks about how hockey changed over the century since it was first played. He talks about the introduction of the forward pass, the lines, off-ice training, and the influence of the Soviets and each one of their influences on the game. He also gives his ideas on how hitting, fighting, and the violence we take for granted grew to be part of the game.

Monday, January 22, 2018

I like the concept of The Song Society. Jamie Cullum and his bandmates find a song they like by someone else and learn it to record in under an hour. This version of "Uptown Funk" is pretty sweet. I love the rising bassline in the chorus.

If you liked it, you should check out some of the other Song Society posts by Cullum and his band.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Set roughly a year after Silent City, Pete Fernandez has hit bottom. He gained some minor celebrity from stopping the Silent Death, but drank it, and most of the goodwill of his fellow man, away. After one especially bad night, he decides to clean up his act and it works out pretty well for him. He's got a job at a local bookstore and his ex, Emily, is moving in with him after a separation from her husband. But when Pete gets involved with a case of a missing girl, the kicks just keep coming.

Alex Segura is a writer who needs to be known. He paints the neon lights and the dark shadows of Miami in such vivid detail and has created a wonderful character in Pete Fernandez. From page one, you empathize with Pete and root for a happy ending for him. Since this is noir, every happy ending has a dark cloud behind it.

The Pete Fernandez series is highly recommended. I look forward to reading Dangerous Ends.